CHESAPEAKE, Va. — Next weekend, Chesapeake nonprofit shelter will debut a new pop-up park designed and built by a group of volunteer architects.
It's called a 'pop-up' because it will be constructed over the course of a day at ForKids in Chesapeake's South Norfolk neighborhood on Friday. The park's components are already under construction inside a Maker Space off Church Street in Norfolk.
Architects from the local chapter of the American Institute of Architects have volunteered their time to design, build and paint the pieces.
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"(It's inspiring) seeing how the project itself and the process of it is able to bring so many people together," said Tony Lin, an architect for Hanbury in Norfolk who's leading the project. "Also, (we're) kind of racing against the clock."
The group already met Saturday and will do so again on Tuesday.
ForKids, which gives homeless families a place to stay and offers resources to help them get back on their feet, is excited about the prospect of the park.
"(It will have) a large butterfly temporarily in our front plaza where you can take a picture, very colorful pictures. The whole theme is about butterflies and how you can emerge, sort of like where we work with our families," said Bill Young, Chief Innovation Officer for ForKids. "You come around the side of the building where we're standing now and we'll have a wall with a bunch of flowers."
The park will also include a climbable caterpillar and canopy behind the shelter.
The spaces will be bright, colorful and positive, and available for use by families living in the surrounding South Norfolk neighborhood. Young tells News 3 it's in line with the shelter's mission to be a gathering space for a community that could use a lift.
"We can continue to do the important, lifesaving work we're doing and we can be an asset to the community," he said.
ForKids will hold the grand opening for the pop-up park on Saturday, October 5 from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m.
